The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by their inclusion in this section.
Creating an apparatus for fast and efficient automated food preparation while accommodating ingredient customization requests from customers is difficult using presently available techniques. Preparing a food bowl, for example, traditionally has required an employee to select customized ingredients for each order and assemble the food bowl by hand. This traditional approach requires a restaurant to hire employees and train them in food assembly best practices. However, unexpected employee absences, differences in employee training, and other factors often result in food preparation inconsistencies that may cause a loss in business. Thus, a reliable automated food preparation and assembly process without the need for employees is desirable. Other benefits could include reduced labor costs, improving labor shift timing, and improved food safety arising from less human contact with ingredients.
However, automating the food preparation and assembly process presents a unique set of challenges. For example, traditionally, each ingredient is packaged and shipped to a restaurant in different containers which vary from supplier to supplier, creating drastic differences in ingredient storage. Each ingredient may also need to be stored and prepared at different temperatures, which has traditionally required that each ingredient be stored and prepared separately. Thus, for successful automation, there is a need for uniform food containers for easy storage and dispensing, an apparatus that is configured to uniformly dispense and assemble each ingredient, and an apparatus that is configured to store and prepare each ingredient at different temperatures.